Like RIM and Google, Palm also followed Apple’s lead by announcing “Software Store”. Palm launched an on-device application store for both Windows Mobile and Palm OS powered handsets. Palm has partnered up with PocketGear, an app distributor that has around 50,000 smartphone applications for various smartphone OSs. This partnership has allowed Palm to open the on-device store with full catalog of applications from day one. The Software Store has more than 1,500 applications available for download in various categories.
But, as Palm is sharing the revenue with third party app distributor, developers revenue share drops to just 50 percent. In comparison, Apple, Google and RIM offer around 70 percent revenue share. This will definitely decrease developer interest in Palm’s new on-device Software Store. The Software Store will have applications for over 25 Palm devices and Palm users can get the mobile software store here.